History has not been a major focus for either of the Trump administrations, but this week the Trump administration sent several observers to their history books after it said that it was considering the reestablishment of “Prize Courts” a centuries-old maritime institution in which special-purpose tribunals would decide the legality of the seizure and forfeiture of an enemy merchant vessel. Due to changes in the nature of naval warfare, no prize cases have been heard in the US since 1956. In England and Wales, prize jurisdiction is exercised by the Admiralty Court under the Prize Courts Act 1894 and Senior Courts Act 1981. In France, the “Conseil des prises” has jurisdiction to determine the issue of the prize. Since 2007, piracy has been transferred to criminal courts. The council’s jurisdiction is reduced to war time. The concept therefore might have been seen as mainly academic, studied by undergraduates but then forgotten. Clearly, however, someone in Washington has remembered. The administration has seen it as a route by which it could bypass the delay-prone appeals process of the civil court system, according to a Bloomberg report. The peak age of Prize Courts was probably the 18th century, with contests between colonial powers, blockades, and militarily-aligned merchant shipping in the Atlantic. The court is convened in a belligerent state’s seaport when a captured merchant ship is brought in. If the ship meets the standard for a prize, the court transfers ownership of the vessel (and any contraband cargo) to the belligerent state. Unsurprisingly, international law did not provide carte blanche to belligerent states in this matter. There were six possible justifications: • carrying militarily-useful goods toward enemy territory (contraband goods); • transporting enemy military members; • operating under enemy control or charter; • using fake documents; • violating regulations near naval activity or • attempting to run a blockade. More than one of these conditions would have caught the eyes of Trump administration lawyers. The ship seizures by the US in late 2025 connected to its Venezuelan blockade and in the past few months since the Iranian blockade was set up appear to satisfy several of these conditions., Bloomberg has reported that the Department of Justice is looking to set up prize court proceedings in the Southern District of Texas (in Houston), which would be a convenient destination for seized tankers, and indeed is where some arrived after the Venezuelan blockade was imposed. US Attorney for the Southern District Aaron Reitz confirmed that his office is involved in the effort. The prize system limits the ability of third parties to intervene in the case. Civil forfeiture suits in the US are far more complex as other parties with potentially valid claims to the value of the vessel could make a case for their share of the prize. That can slow down drastically the eventual distribution of funds, which would also be depleted considerably by the extra legal fees, as well as costs for maintaining the captured vessel (insurance, wages, fuel, etc).

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